Dear Russell,mike caruso,MichRR714, Bill $, Alex Malliae,Popsrr,dk122trains,Passenger Train Collector, and gunrunnerjohn, (and any one else),
Geez, you people are from all around the country probably! I feel as if I am home, it feels so good to be back!
Quite frankly, I always thought of you all as my core group, more close to me than my local train club, even!
I have had quite a little adventure with that pesky tumor but since my one shot radiation treatment (in June) called Gamma Knife (actually not involving cutlery at all) I am now better.
Brain tumors have two types one is metastatic (spreading - often fatal) the other benign (non spreading- non fatal). Thankfully, I have the second kind which means I get to spend the rest of my long life around O gauge trains and some S gauge.
There is a tendancy on the part of many people to believe that when someone gives you news of a brain tumor to believe the worst but I remain calm (and knock on wood) healthy!!!! It is benign!
Some of the noticeable side effects I have were from my surgery in 2004 a tendancy to fall of balance (corrected by using a cane and a single sided deafness in my left ear. All in all everything else is fine. I certainly spent a lot of time needlessly worrying about the radiation treatment which hopefully killed the tumor, they do great things at NY Presbyterian brain surgery and Gamma Knife are just 2 of their specialties.
Sorry for those of you who thought my hobo and train collection would soon be available by EBay auction. LOL! Only kidding! I plan on giving them to my as yet unborn grandchildren!
Good to be back, now let's run some trains shall we? See you at York in the fall?
Mike Maurice
ps.
